Those protections become our armour.

There are experiences we live through without quite being equipped to meet them. An emotion we had to suppress. A response we couldn’t express. Something painful or overwhelming that we survived by tightening around it, going numb, staying in control, or becoming very good at reading what everyone else needed from us.

Armour can live in the way we hold our bodies, the emotions we struggle to feel, our very thought patterns and the reactions that take over before we’ve had a chance to choose. It can leave us repeating familiar patterns, unable to fully open to even the things we long for.

De-armouring is a way of working with that armour directly.

What happens in a session?

I create a space in which your body can begin to show us where it is holding on, and what it might need in order to soften. We pay attention to sensation, emotion, breath and the subtle signals that most of us were taught to ignore.

Sometimes an experience that couldn’t be fully felt at the time begins to find expression. Sometimes we discover how much safety is needed before anything can move at all. We follow what is there.

I use gentle, attentive touch, often with just one finger at a time. Every session is different, and sometimes there is no touch. If your body is bracing against it, we listen to that response. We learn to recognise what feels welcome, what feels too much, and where there is capacity to be with harder things too. Your body’s wisdom guides the work. Your consent remains yours to change throughout.

I meet every part of you with care, including parts that carry shame or fear.

More of life becomes available.

For me, this is the purpose of de-armouring.

That might mean being able to receive someone’s care without immediately feeling you owe them something. Feeling an emotion and staying with it long enough to discover what it needs. Allowing yourself to enjoy touch without monitoring whether you’re responding correctly.

It might mean recognising a familiar reaction as it begins, and finding you have a little more choice. Saying what you want. Feeling your boundary clearly enough to trust it. Feeling pleasure. Discovering that you can let go a little and still be able to say stop.

As the armour softens, there may be more room for grief and joy, desire and tenderness - more capacity to meet the whole messy, contradictory experience of being human.

I also understand dearmouring as a way of glimpsing who we are beyond the protections we’ve had to build. To be touched, moved, affected by life, and have room for what you feel. To be in approval of the experience of being alive.

That is something we explore together, in your own body, at your own pace.

If you recognise yourself here, let’s talk about what you’d like to explore.